The present invention relates generally to consumer product cabinet design, and, more specifically, to the ornamental front face or bezel of the cabinet.
A personal computer (PC) is an exemplary consumer product wherein the operative electronic devices including the central processing unit (CPU), power supply, and various disk drives are mounted to a structural chassis and enclosed by a cabinet which is typically sheet metal on its two sides, top, and back. The front of the cabinet is typically enclosed by a one piece molded plastic bezel which is typically mounted to the remainder of the cabinet using screws threaded into its back side and accessible from inside the cabinet.
The bezel is configured to have various windows for providing user access to data storage devices such as magnetic disk drives. The bezel is also used to mount the power switch of the computer and various indicator lights for example.
Since the bezel covers the front side of the computer, it is also the ornamental or cosmetic side thereof. Accordingly, this design varies among different manufacturers in configuration and ornamentation including color, texture, design, and manufacturer identification logos or trademarks. Each bezel is typically unique in configuration for a given product and must be separately designed and manufactured using tooling specifically configured therefor. Significant cost and manufacturing time result.